[Buddha-l] the benefits of Jayarava's discussion

[jkirk]

Since Richard called our attention to Jayarava, including a link
to his blog, http://jayarava.blogspot.com/ ,
I've been advidly reading his articles. What richness of food for
thought is there.

Reading two articles today, I found his translation of the
Buddha's last words here: 
http://jayarava.org/buddhas-last-words.html ,

and another article on the khandas as the apparatus of experience
rather than as metaphysical entity. Also his rendering of
dhammaas as experiences, rather than things, under certain
conditions within the discourse:  see 

http://jayarava.blogspot.com/  08 August 2008,
The Apparatus of Experience. 

What struck me as more useful in the Buddha's last words than
Rhys Davids's translation, the one I'm most familiar with:
something like, "all compounded things are impermanent, so work
out your salvation with diligence", which Jayarava says is closer
to his understanding of the terms, is Jayarava's translation
which goes,

"All things are disappointing, [it is] through vigilance [that]
you succeed." 

His choice of the term 'vigilance' hit me as truly useful,
because the idea of 'diligence' suggests expending hard
work-energy on something, while vigilance suggests vipassana, or
insight, as the word includes the idea of  'to see'.  We already
know, and I suspect the Buddha's monks knew, that hard work was
part of the effort, it could be assumed. But 'vigilance' -- there
lies the possibility of not being befuddled by wishful thinking
in the process.

About 'experience' vs. 'things' he wrote: _this has profound
implications for how we practice and teach the Dharma. For one
thing I think we should abandon talking about dependent arising
in terms of "things arising in dependence on causes" - there are
no things only experiences. It would be more accurate to say that
"experiences of things arise in dependence on causes". This then
allows us to focus on the experience of dependent arising, rather
than trying to locate some object which is arising. So many of
our metaphors for dependent arising involve "things". But because
of the way we function - through and only through experience -
there are in effect no things arising._

Ofen in common discourse the first noble truth is presented as
'all things' are: suffering, transitory, unsatisfactory,
stressful, etc.

Jayarava's discussion, by a change of term and emphasis, from
'things' to 'experiences', helps to turn attention  toward
reflecting on experience, rather than trying to figure out what
'things' out there objectively are causing the suffering. We are
causing it. This came to me as an insight today from reading
these articles; I realise that others might have already been
there.

Thanks, Jayarava.

Joanna